Air France has brought one of France’s most compelling culinary voices into its Business cabin on the Nairobi–Paris route, partnering with Michelin-starred chef Mory Sacko to serve a rotating menu of dishes that draw on West African tradition and French technique in equal measure.
Who Is Mory Sacko?
Sacko trained in the grand palace hotels of Paris before arriving on the gastronomic scene in 2020 with the opening of MoSuke, his debut restaurant on the Left Bank. The concept, as he describes it on his website, proposes “a detailed and poetic conversation between Africa, France, and Japan” — a triangulation of culinary traditions that earned MoSuke a Michelin star in 2021 and announced Sacko as one of the new faces of French gastronomy.
Of Senegalese and Malian heritage, Sacko has built a body of work that refuses to separate his roots from his craft. Time magazine named him one of its Next Generation Leaders. The Guardian called him “the new face of French cooking.” GQ France named him man of the year in 2022. Since 2020, he has hosted a weekly prime-time food programme on France 3, now in its fifth season, and writes a weekly column for France Culture.
Beyond MoSuke, Sacko runs Mosugo, his comfort food concept built around fried chicken, with three locations across Paris. He has also collaborated with Nespresso on a Zambia coffee co-creation, partnered with Veuve Clicquot on an exclusive pairing recipe, and fronted Ralph Lauren’s global Christmas campaign. In 2025, the French government selected him as the first chef to represent the national “Make It Iconic. Choose France” campaign.
What Passengers Can Expect
Business cabin passengers on Air France flights departing Nairobi can now choose from Sacko’s signature creations, with 12 original dishes introduced gradually across vegetarian, fish, red meat, and poultry options. Two dishes available immediately illustrate the depth of the concept: gnocchi with corn cream and spring onions, which anchors an everyday African staple within a refined French format, and sea bass with prawns in a spicy broth that echoes both West African fish soups and the Provençal tradition of bouillabaisse, served alongside poached vegetables.
The menus do not retrofit African ingredients into French templates. They place both traditions in genuine conversation, which is precisely what Sacko has built his reputation on.
“Our partnership with Chef Sacko reinforces Air France’s long-standing ambition to champion French culinary excellence at altitude while embracing the richness of local cultures in its global network. We are delighted to introduce his unique menu to our loyal customers across Africa,” said Joris Holtus, Air France-KLM Regional General Manager for East and Southern Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana.
A Wider African Rollout
The Nairobi launch opens a broader rollout across sub-Saharan Africa through 2026 and 2027, with Sacko’s menus set to reach Cotonou, Dakar, Libreville, and Lagos progressively. For a chef whose entire creative identity rests on the richness of African culinary heritage, the partnership carries a coherence that goes well beyond airline branding.
